Conventional document inspection programs can review and check an electronic document for possible problems prior to the electronic document being published. For example, document inspection programs are often used to check electronic documents created by a document editing program for possible errors or problems that could exist if the electronic document will be published with a commercial printing process. A document inspection process can identify possible errors prior to publishing an electronic document. Such a process can save significant time and money spent for applications such as commercial printing, website publishing, desk top publishing, and other like publishing applications.
Specifically, conventional document inspection programs can review electronic documents produced by document editing programs to determine if too much blank space exists on top of a page, whether objects are not properly positioned on a page, whether an object placed on a page is invisible, and whether improper colors are being used for a particular application. These are just a few of the problems that can be identified by conventional document inspection software.
While conventional document inspection software can be quite helpful to identify potential publishing problems, such software is usually executed or run as a separate step after a document has been created in a document editing program, and not while the document is being edited. Using a document inspection program after creating an electronic document with a document editing program can be inefficient since many problems in the electronic document can be related to one another and could be resolved rather quickly if identified while the document was being created.
Another drawback of document inspection software is that it is usually a program that is separate from the document editing program. That is, the document inspection software is usually created by a manufacturer who is different than the manufacturer of the document editing program. Therefore, the document inspection software manufacturer may not be familiar with all of the programming code of the document editing program and incompatibility issues can result.
Further, conventional document inspection software typically may not interact with the electronic document that may exist in the document editing program. In other words, the document inspection software usually reports errors present in a document but the software cannot make changes to the electronic document as it exists in the document editing program. Third party document inspection software usually exists as a completely separate application relative to the document editing program.
While numerous separate document inspection software programs exist, some document editing programs have some document inspection functions built into the document editing program. However, these document inspection functions are usually very limited and also have several of the problems of the document inspection software.
Some problems of the document inspection software and problems of built-in document inspection functions document editing programs can include running checks of electronic document after the electronic document has been created. Another problem of document inspection software and document inspection functions of the conventional art is the sequential presentation of problems when the checking process is initiated. In other words, when a conventional document inspection process is started, the first problem of the electronic document is usually identified and the user may only proceed serially to the next problem after resolving the current problem that has been identified. Identifying the problem can include magnifying the area on the page containing the problem and possibly highlighting the problem with a color.
During the sequential checking process, a user is often forced to make a decision of how to correct the problem that is being identified. With conventional document inspection techniques, the user will have no idea of how many publishing problems exist in a document and what type of problems exist in the document. The sequential presentation of problems of conventional document inspection techniques can be characterized as a very rigid and non-interactive process.
Because the potential publishing problems during the document inspection process are usually magnified, it is difficult and often impossible to see any other problems that may exist on the current page. If a user does correct a problem that has been identified with conventional document inspection techniques, the user is usually not given any indication that the action taken by the user has corrected the current problem or any of the remaining problems that have not been checked. With the conventional document inspection process, the user has very little or no control over the document inspection process.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method for checking and resolving publication design problems that is interactive and permits a user to have some control during a document inspection process. There is a further need in the art for a document inspection process that can provide continuous and real/time feedback on possible design problems while a document is being edited or created. There is a further need in the art for a document inspection process that identifies all problems of an electronic document and that identifies the types of problems that may be present in an electronic document. Another need exists in the art for a document inspection process that is integral with a publishing program such that options may be available to the user for automatic correction of certain reoccurring problems. And lastly, a need exists in the art for a document inspection process that is simple to use and easy to manage while an electronic document is being created or edited.